Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Homosexuality and the Catholic Priesthood

The profound sadness I feel regarding the Church's impending decision to exclude people on the basis of Sexual Orientation from the priesthood drives me to the verge of stomach illness. I am in many ways a rarity among poets- I am a Catholic who goes to Mass and who is embedded in the Catholic Culture and place in the world. I am not some cafeteria Catholic or Kabbalah using hypster, no I am a Catholic who believes in the Nicene Creed and the Church and this sometimes separates me from my fellow poets and makes me less than understood .I cannot defend why the Curia does and I have to be Angry but Obedient. The issue of Sexual Predation among Catholic Priests is a great and mortal sin. This sin was not only committed by the Priests who violated their vows and used their power to commit rape on young men and women but also one committed by the Church's princes the bishops and Cardinals. Why Cardinal Law of Boston is not in Jail is something I will never understand? Why my home Bishop protected a pedophilia in my home parish is beyond me- it is just evil. What these Bishops and their pedophilia friends have done is to besmirtch the trust and care of millions of Catholics and to steal their money to pay damages for their sins. Hospitals, Schools, Homeless Shelters, Soup Kitchens have been closed because the Church has had to sell these places to pay damages for the rapine and evil of our Bishops. When my parents and grandparents gave their hard earned money for the Church it was not for this. So now when the Church needs to pull together, to love as Jesus loved us, to be accepting and to love those who are seeking to serve; the Church announces that they will ban Homosexual men from the Priesthood; what an evil joke. The problem with the Catholic Church is not Homosexuality, it is misogyny and corruption. Why is it that Gay men are banned from ministry and it is estimated the 65% of all priests in the USA are homosexual but chaste? Why is it that Our Church is going to be bigoted against Gay people when it is proven that Homosexuality is not a choice but a gift from God. When I worked as a lay missioner in Bolivia I saw all sorts of violations of the rules; priests with multiple children by multiple women, gay priests involved in all sorts of relationships, Nuns and Sisters driven from religious life because of affairs while the priest involved was sent "on retreat". The problem is evil and perverted sexual ideas not Homosexuality. The problem is not homosexuality; Gay people deserve the same rights as Heterosexuals, marriage, families, respect and love.The problem is a Church hierarchy that is filled with infantile women haters and ignorant narrowminded priests with power. A right wing priest said on the radio that the goal was a smaller, faithful Church. Why not a Church that tries to embody the best of our Catholic History. Would Jesus, St Benedict, St Francis, St Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Bartolome De Las Casas, De Chardin, Merton, Day, John the XXIII or any of the myriad of great Catholics have wanted a smaller bigoted church? What would Jesus do? He loved.... and died from cruelty and bigotry-

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Being Well Read or Being Well Hipster

Recently on our website Chicagopostmodernpoetry.com I went through somewhat of an ordeal that proved to be worth the time and effort. This was to put up a Global Profile of France that was masterfully edited by Jennifer K Dick of Paris and Iowa City.The French of course are very Exigente as they say in the language of God and Dante but one of the things that came out of this set of interviews, poetry and such was how well read these people are. France is one of those nations along with Italy, Spain, Russia, Poland and a few others where the Intellectual has a societial place of prominence as opposed to the US where Intellectuals are a curiosity. I am around allot of poets and allot of normal everyday people. Since I work as a business person and do not live in academia I get to juxtopose different ways of thinking and being one with another. The facts are that most Americans are profoundly uncurious they do not read or care about the outside world, but many American poets are also profoundly uncurious. They spend their time on what they know reinforcing what they know to themselves. You would think that since poets and poetry are profoundly marginalized they would also be profoundly well read and well formed but that is not true they are in many ways as narrow as accountants or lawyers. I have always been attracted to artists who are profoundly well read and engaged. This is why at times I cannot deal with the University of Chicago (Add Elite U Here) crowd that lives in a land that is so unengaged. but another part is the fact that no one is looking for stimulation or insight outside of themselves. These French writers we profiled seem to be in dialogue with allot more people than those of us in the USA and they seem to have subsumed intellectual snobbery for intellectual curiousity. I find in so many of my poet friends the desire to be Urban Hipsters, or Feminist Critics, or whatever is hip a the moment and a lack of desire to be solid and to be well read and to be engaged in the world as rich as it is. I had a conversation with Simone Muench once, a poet with whom none of the aforementioned is true; and she said about "poet of the moment" "But really how well read is that poet, what do they know?" I have always been drawn to poets and artists who had a life breadth who live life fully. Dante, Blake, Hopkins, Merton, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Zanzotto, Regis Bonvicino, Marjorie Perloff, Charles Bernstein; people whose life and work and reading are deep but people who also are ok having a pastrami sandwich or a shot and a beer as well. Well this is at least what I am thinking about as I watch the White Sox collapse.